DEPARTURE OF THE SHENANDOAH FROM MELBOURNE. — HER DOINGS OUTSIDE, OVERHAULING- VESSELS.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 770, 10 March 1865, Page 1

DEPARTURE OF THE SHENANDOAH FROM MELBOURNE. — HER DOINGS OUTSIDE, OVERHAULING- VESSELS.

The Confederate cruiser Shenandoah fired a salute and sailed on Saturday, the 18th February. It is expected that she will cruise off the Heads for a short time, as previous to her departure Captain Waddell wrote to the Attorney-General asking if, in defining the neutral boundary, the Government claimed three miles from the Heads, or a line drawn that distance from Cape Sohank to Point Lansdale. A reply was sent, signed by the Secretary of the Law Department, which was returned by Captain Waddejll, stating that it did not contain the information he required. Several American vessels are now due, and fears ara entertained lest some of them should be captured. Previous to her leaving it was believed1, that there were many men on board who had been enlisted by the captain, or who had been stowed away. Captain Waddell refused to allow a search to be made, whereupon the Government seized the Patent Slip on which the vessel lay. A wairant was issued to search for a man named Charlie, a British subject. Fifty men of the Royal Artillery and fifty policemen then took possession of the slip, and all persons were warned against assisting in the removal of the Tessel. The Victorian steamer and the 68-pounder gun-raft were manned for service, and some of-the police were located in vessels around the slip for surveillance.' The captain said he would abandon the vessel, proceed to England, and throw on the Colonial Government the responsibility of her detention ; but it was Teplied that the steps were taken to enforce obedience to a warrant.

The telegram, of 15th Feb., says that during the day four seamen were arrested leaving the vessel, one of them was the person against whom the warrantwas issued, and the vessel was shortly afterwards released from surveillance. It is known that there are prisoners on board in irons, but the opinion of •counsel is against the Government as having any Tight to search a vessel of war. Explanation respecting the alleged breach of neutrality was given by the Government in both Houses of Parliament the same evening. The Government stated that, having arrested the seaman on shore, against whom the warrant was issued, the vessel was released.

By telegraph on the evening of 20th Feb., we learn that two men have been arrested for attempting to enlist hands for the Shenandoah, which is still hovering off the coast. On Saturday evening she overhauled two coasters bound for Melbourne from Newcastle ; and on the 19th, she was in sight of the telegraph station at Cape Schank. A telegram from Adelaide says : —" The news of the sailing of the Shenandoah, from Melbourne, has caused some excitement amongst the American shipping lying at this port."